National movement to oppose Iraq war

Labour Party campaigners opposed to planned attacks on Iraq are combining their efforts with youth organisations, church leaders, trade unions and anti-globalisation protesters to form a national peace movement.

Labour Against the War, the pressure group formed to oppose British involvement in US military strikes against Saddam Hussein, has noted an upsurge in support as public opinion against action grows.

Twelve Labour constituencies have signed up to the campaign. And trade unions and Labour delegates have vowed to provoke hostile debates at the annual conferences of both the TUC and the Labour Party itself.

The organisation claims there is "less of a consensus of support and less of an international coalition" in favour of bombing Baghdad. Though the Government insists there are no immediate plans to take action, the language coming out of Washington continues to be bellicose, and Tony Blair shows no signs of withdrawing his support for George Bush.

Alan Simpson, a Labour MP and leading member of Labour Against the War, said yesterday: "Rather than a long summer of softening up the public in acceptance of a war, it has begun to galvanise sections of the public in opposition to a war."

Warnings against military action have been voiced by a number of Labour MPs, former ministers, faith leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They now hope that the breadth of feeling against a war can be pulled together into a national peace movement.

Mr Simpson said: "We have been experiencing a rise in support from party activists, branches and trade unions. All this is an indication of activists not walking away but getting organised. We have been preparing the basis upon which we link up with the wider peace movement."